To: Marilyn Kinoshita, Tulare County Agricultural Commissioner
HEALTHY KIDS ZONE: Advancing Health Protection for Children and Communities in Tulare County
Tulare County families urge their local Agricultural Commissioner to include all application types of restricted material into current quarter-mile buffers around schools (in session), and sensitive areas like homes, parks, childcare centers, and other places where kids learn, live, and play.
Why is this important?
Tulare County ranks third in pesticide use in California, with more than 14 million pounds of active ingredients used in 2012 (latest data available from California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation). Current protection against restricted material pesticides, the most dangerous type, only prohibits aerial application within a 1/4-mile of schools that are in session, labor camps, and neighborhoods. This leaves a loophole for dangerous pesticides to be used in close proximity to mentioned sites—if applied non-aerially. For this reason, farm working parents have begun to ask for stronger protection zones against restricted material pesticides.
The research is there. There are studies that highlight the following among other potential harms: community susceptibility to pesticide in agricultural areas (1), the detrimental impacts of pesticides on kids’ health (2), and exposure to agricultural pesticides as not a good thing (3).
Stronger protection is possible and realistic. With the signing of AB 947 in 2002, California agricultural commissioners were authorized to apply regulations to agricultural use of pesticides within a quarter-mile of a school. With this supportive legislation in place, protection around school sites can be a great start.
On behalf of concerned families in Tulare County, we ask for your support to better protect the health of Tulare County children and communities by signing our petition to urge the Tulare County Ag Commissioner to include all applications of restricted material pesticides onto established quarter-mile protection around schools that are in session and other sensitive areas.
1. Quirós-Alcalá L, Bradman A, Nishioka M, Harnly ME, Hubbard A, McKone TE, Ferber J, Eskenazi B. "Pesticides in house dust from urban and farmworker households in California: an observational measurement study." Environ Health. 2011 Mar 16; 10:19.doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-10-19.
2. Schafer KS, Marquez EC, Chandra M, Hutchens K, Reeves M, 1. Watts M; Pesticide Action Network North America. "A generation in jeopardy: how pesticides are undermining our children’s health and intelligence." http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/KidsHealthReportOct2012.pdf. Published October 2012. Accessed April 13, 2015.
3. Shelton JF, Geraghty EM, Tancredi DJ, Delwiche LD, Schmidt RJ, Ritz B, Hansen RL, Hertz-Picciotto I. 2014. "Neurodevelopmental disorders and prenatal residential proximity to agricultural pesticides: the CHARGE study." Environ Health Perspect 122:1103–1109; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307044.
The research is there. There are studies that highlight the following among other potential harms: community susceptibility to pesticide in agricultural areas (1), the detrimental impacts of pesticides on kids’ health (2), and exposure to agricultural pesticides as not a good thing (3).
Stronger protection is possible and realistic. With the signing of AB 947 in 2002, California agricultural commissioners were authorized to apply regulations to agricultural use of pesticides within a quarter-mile of a school. With this supportive legislation in place, protection around school sites can be a great start.
On behalf of concerned families in Tulare County, we ask for your support to better protect the health of Tulare County children and communities by signing our petition to urge the Tulare County Ag Commissioner to include all applications of restricted material pesticides onto established quarter-mile protection around schools that are in session and other sensitive areas.
1. Quirós-Alcalá L, Bradman A, Nishioka M, Harnly ME, Hubbard A, McKone TE, Ferber J, Eskenazi B. "Pesticides in house dust from urban and farmworker households in California: an observational measurement study." Environ Health. 2011 Mar 16; 10:19.doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-10-19.
2. Schafer KS, Marquez EC, Chandra M, Hutchens K, Reeves M, 1. Watts M; Pesticide Action Network North America. "A generation in jeopardy: how pesticides are undermining our children’s health and intelligence." http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/KidsHealthReportOct2012.pdf. Published October 2012. Accessed April 13, 2015.
3. Shelton JF, Geraghty EM, Tancredi DJ, Delwiche LD, Schmidt RJ, Ritz B, Hansen RL, Hertz-Picciotto I. 2014. "Neurodevelopmental disorders and prenatal residential proximity to agricultural pesticides: the CHARGE study." Environ Health Perspect 122:1103–1109; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307044.